MSDSonline Environmental, Health & Safety Blog

Through a national online discussion, Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis recently outlined President Obama’s $117 billion FY 2011 budget request for the Department of Labor (DOL), which includes $573 million for OSHA, an increase of nearly $14.5 million. The budget is built around Secretary Solis’ vision of “good jobs for everyone.” 

The 2011 budget request augments the 2010  policy of returning worker protection programs to FY 2001 staffing levels, after years of decline. Solis said the department “expects to hire more than 350 new employees, including 177 investigators and other enforcement staff, many of whom will be bilingual to better communicate with employees in the changing workplace.” 

The budget request also affirms the administration’s focus on vigorous enforcement strategies with changes planned for outreach, training and cooperative and compliance assistance programs. According to the Congressional Budget Justification for OSHA, the agency “will redirect resources toward reaching out to the most hazardous workplaces and industries, eliminating or reducing exposure to prevalent workplace hazards, and enhancing outreach and education for small businesses and workers who are hardest to reach and most at risk.” 
 
Five Strategic Goals of the 2011 DOL Budget Proposal

Goal 1) Prepare workers for good jobs and ensure fair compensation
Goal 2) Ensure workplaces are safe and healthy
Goal 3) Assure fair and high quality work-life environments
Goal 4) Secure health benefits and, for those not working, provide income security
Goal 5) Foster fair working conditions in the global marketplace.

OSHA Budget-request Highlights

•  The budget includes nearly $14.5 million more for OSHA compared to the amount enacted for 2010.
•  Enforcement funding will increase by $10 million compared to 2010.
  

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OSHA’s Recordkeeping Rule, 29 CFR 1904, has been center stage in the EH&S world as of late. We’ve had the recent implementation of a national emphasis program (NEP) on recordkeeping due to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study that revealed underreporting,  and now we have an OSHA proposal on the floor to revise future injury and illness recordkeeping requirements so that it’s easier to identify work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). 

The proposed rule aims to reinstate a column for recording MSDs onto the Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses, Form 300. This same requirement was issued in 2001 but deleted before the final rule became effective. 

Reinstating an MSD column on the OSHA 300 Form “will improve the ability of workers and employers to identify and prevent work-related musculoskeletal disorders by providing simple and easily accessible information,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Dr. David Michaels.  “It will also improve the accuracy and completeness of national work-related injury and illness data.” Visit OSHA’s Web site to read the complete announcement.

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-MSDSonline Team-

The Hazard Communication Standard (HCS or HazCom) is again found near the top of OSHA’s Most Frequently Cited Standards list, ranking third for the 2009 fiscal year (Oct. 1, 2008 – Sept. 30, 2009), with more than 6,700 violations being reported. Of that, according to the NSC December 2009 magazine article titled, “OSHA’s Top 10 Most Cited Violations 2009,” more than 3,900 were categorized as serious, which is defined by OSHA  to mean there was a “substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result.”

HCS as many of you know is the standard set forth to protect employees from hazardous chemicals found in the workplace. The regulation consists of four main parts: Written HazCom Plan, Labels and Warnings, Employee Training and MSDS Documents. If you’re familiar with HCS, you’re also probably aware of OSHA’s recent proposal to align the standard with the United Nations’ Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS). It will be interesting to see how the proposed changes for this standard might impact the regulation’s placement on the list in coming years.

- MSDSonline Compliance Team -

Distinguished scientist Dr. David Michaels is the official assistant secretary of labor for OSHA, presiding over Deputy Assistant Secretary Jordan Barab, who had been the interim OSHA overseer. Michaels was unanimously confirmed by the Senate, and then sworn in on Dec. 9, 2009.

Michaels is a former research professor and interim chair in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health (EOH) at George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. His studies have included examining the hazards facing construction workers, printers and other worker-groups.

From 1998-2001 he served as assistant secretary of energy for environment, safety and health in the Department of Energy (DOE) and was responsible for protecting the health and safety of workers, the neighboring communities and environment surrounding the country’s nuclear weapons facilities. According to a recent VPPPA (Voluntary Protection Program Participants’ Association) Safety News Network article, it was during his time with the DOE that the DOE Voluntary Protection Program was launched.

Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis said, “Dr. Michaels is an important addition to help with my goal of good jobs for everyone. Good jobs are safe jobs.”

Michaels is expected to amp up the agency’s worker-protection efforts, which among other things is likely to involve the implementation of more employee-training programs.

It will be interesting to see what changes take effect for OSHA and America’s workplaces in the coming months.

-The MSDSonline Compliance Team